Fired Pa. guard gets 45 days for freezing shackles

BEDFORD (AP) — A fired guard must spend 45 days in jail for placing freezing shackles on a female inmate after she previously complained about how cold the metal restraints could be.

Bedford County District Attorney William Higgins says Ryan Clapper’s conduct was “reprehensible and egregious.”

Clapper, of Schellsburg, was cited for harassment in August, after an inmate at the county jail about 85 miles east of Pittsburgh complained about the frozen shackles. Clapper had bragged to another guard, who eventually testified against Clapper, that he put the shackles in a freezer for an hour to punish the woman for her past complaints.

Higgins says the 26-year-old convict must begin his sentence Aug. 12, likely in another county’s jail.